The Dragonbond Program discussion

Weiss was in the sitting room... sitting, of course. He wasn't sure there was much else to do in a sitting room but sit. You could lie down, he supposed, but then it would be a "Lying Down Room." He didn't like the sound of it. A sitting room was for sitting. He must've been in a good mood, to be able to consider that menial of a thing.

((LOL. Now I'm tempted to just rename it to the Common Room, lol, but that would ruin the hilarity of your post.))

((Yep.))

Aleyne strode into the room, a book balanced precariously in one hand, and the other fingering the ends of her curled hair which hung loosely to her waist. Her expression was focused, eyes running down the page with ease. She glanced up a moment as her foot caught on the hem of the rug, breaking her from her reverie.

((It would be sad...))

Weiss threw out an arm, catching her by grabbing her shoulder, arm spanning her entire body, braced against her chest, though the purple haired young man felt no shame, since he was stopping a fall. Usually he wouldn't have even helped, but, hey, he was in a good mood. Of course, his white eyes swiveled to his rescue, seeing that it was once again Aleyne.

Aleyne cursed, grabbing onto Weiss's arm as the book in her hand tumbled to the ground. She didn't even need to look to know it was him. It was just one of those days. She jerked away, stepping back from him quickly. It'd been a day since she'd seen him, and this was not the most glamorous re-encounter she could think of. Her heart pumped rapidly, her cheeks flushing scarlet. "Well," she started, attempting to cover her embarrassment. "Fancy seeing you here..." It sounded pathetic even to her own ears, but at least she wasn't screaming or gushing out random equations. It could be worse.

((Should he be hilariously prompt? Like, no reservations during speech at all, like he usually is, but... less mean and more simply observant?))

((Sure! Whatever you feel like doing!))

((Alrighty then.))

"You have a nice figure," Weiss said without looking at her again, his eyes returning to his own studies. He was honest, though, and pretty much shameless. "I can see that maybe you're not all skin and bone, after all. At least some areas have filled out," he murmured, in a disinterested voice. Not like he cared at all. He was tsundere indifferent.

Aleyne stepped back in utter shock, her mouth opening to retort but instead hanging there agape a moment. If possible her cheeks flared an even deeper shade of red. "Excuse me?" She demanded, her voice coming out more forcefully than she'd intended. She tried to continue but found her usually vast vocabulary completely vacant.

"You're very thin. Probably due to the poisoning Violaceus removed from you, but, still, it doesn't seem like you're lacking in the more feminine areas. Bust isn't the largest, but is shapely enough, by what I believe to be society's standards nowadays. Your measurements seem to be admirable, but not overly exuberant. A nice, natural figure," Weiss explained, an expert on all things remotely related to measurement, psychology, tactics, or literature.

((...He is so asking for a facial acupuncture makeover.))

((He's a cold person. It's part of being tsundere.))

Aleyne stepped back, her legs hitting the couch behind her. "I didn't bloody well ask you to restate that," she exclaimed in horror, her arm twitching towards her front as though to shield herself from his piercing eyes. Honestly, she didn't even think he noticed things like that. Not that the new revelation was heart warming at all.

((LOL, I'm just cracking up over here.))

Weiss shrugged. "Didn't you? 'Excuse me' usually means to elaborate, when not being used as a pleasantry to apologize for pushing past someone. Weiss wasn't looking at her anyway, and he didn't care to. It wasn't like he was interested in her that way. He'd had plenty of opportunities to engage in activity like that with other students who fancied his apparently well-toned and handsome physique. He usually broke some of their bones. If he desired her that way, he'd find it hypocritical. Besides... he disgusted all of his fellow students.

Gathering her wits together, Aleyne gave him a venomous glare, the vibe around her darkening. "Unless you happen to live under a rock, excuse me is a way expressing utter horror at the words finding their way out of anothers mouth." She continued glaring at him, "you're completely insufferable, you know that?" she fumed, ignoring her book on the ground. There was no way she was going to pick that up with him in the room.

"You're just easily angered. Considering most of my topics of conversation, I'm being very nice. I was simply stating facts based on today's concerns and interests. If you take that personally, that's your problem," Weiss replied, continuing to read. He had no real interest in her body. He was just making conversation.

"Nice?" Aleyne repeated, "I'd hardly call you nice. Insufferable, yes. Nice?" The initial shock was wearing thin, her cheeks defusing and returning to their normal creamy alabaster pallor. Clearing her throat, her expression turned icy. "Never mind, it doesn't matter anyway. As you said, it wasn't personal." She emphasized the last words, making it more into an insult that anything.

"Of course not," Weiss said, not taking it as one. After all, it wasn't. Not in any means. However, if her heart fluttered at it, that was hardly his problem. In fact, his had done something he'd rather it not, as well.

Aleyne stood there a moment, letting the situation ease a little. "Well, aside from you're horrible manners, it's good to see you again. Where were you yesterday? I didn't see you in class." She replied, trying to pretend her earlier embarrassment never happened. Though the thought of it still brought a quickening to her pulse. Insufferable. She kept telling herself it, as though it would ease her conscience.

"I was busy," Weiss replied, shrugging. "I decided to reschedule for extra flight training," he said, turning the page of his book. He didn't want to talk about what had just happened, either.

Aleyne sacrificed her earlier stoicness, and reached down plucking her book from the floor. She took a seat on opposite him, avoiding eye contact. "Oh," she replied flipping open the book in her lap and searching for her previous spot. "How's Violaceus?"

((Sorry, tired. Night, after I edit.))

((Okay, goodnight!))

Weiss shrugged. "He's fine. Enjoying himself while basking, I'd assume," he replied, still reading. He didn't seem outwardly flustered at all. He was as cold and logical as ever. That was the difference between the two. He was able to hide his emotions easily, whereas she had difficulty with it.

Finger grazing one of the pages of the book in her lap, she paused and glanced over the passage. This looked familiar, the physiological theories of Gamphrazion in regards to mental and physical alterations in bio-science though the genetic altering of human bonding with dragons.

((YES ILSA I JUST SAID THAT.))

She glanced up at Weiss as he replied to her question, focusing on his nearly impenetrable aura of ease. Her brows furrowed slightly, but she bit her lip and returned to her book. "I'm sure," she answered trying to ignore the persistent buzz tingling through her shoulder. "He seems to enjoy that, from what I've seen when meeting him. What are you reading?"

((I shall deal with it. :) ))

((Hahahaha, xD))

"A Theory on Dragon Meta-Physical bondings, by one of the founders of this academy," Weiss said, shrugging as he studied the implications of sharing features with his dragon. Would he be able to sprout wings one day? Not likely, but the book seemed to think that, with enough in common, the physical attributes of any bonded human would change at will.

Aleyne fingered the spine of the volume, propping it up on her legs. "For Dragon/Human synopsis studies, right?" She asked, referring to a class they were in together. Though there was hardly any homework required, Aleyne had taken an interest in the subject and started reading material on her own time.
Thinking of Kazul, she wondered where she had gotten to. The last time she'd seen her had been combat class, Aleyne hadn't gotten a chance to talk with her since then. They'd just recently been bonded so she wasn't sure what the normal procedure was in regards to that.
She turned the page, her mind only half focused on the words.

Weiss nodded. That was pretty self-explanatory, after all. There was nothing else the book could refer to, except for perhaps combat. He studied plenty of things for combat. Including anatomy, male and female, explaining his know-how.

((Sorry, today was packed))

Aleyne let silence descend upon them for a few minutes, before returning to the conversation. The pain in her shoulder was beginning to sag on her alertness, and the her earlier embarrassment was still stinging in her cheeks even though the topic had long been closed. "So... You're not screaming and wailing for me to leave anymore, that's a good thing." she began with a crooked smile.

((It's cool.))

"I did neither of those," Weiss said, raising an eyebrow. He understood that she was teasing, but he felt obligated to argue, either way. It was part of their relationship. Were they friends or acquaintances?

"Oh yes you did," Aleyne responded, settling back into the couch. She slipped her shoes off her feet and pulled them up into a cross legged position, propping the book up on her knees. "It usually ended with a dramatic exit, and plenty of growling." She smiled looking over at him, "It was so amusing, I'm almost disappointed you appear to be over that stage."

"Growling. I can growl, if you wish?" Weiss asked, swords beside him, gleaming almost invitingly. And his words could have been mistaken for a different meaning, since he was joking. Many things were easy to mistake, if you thought hard enough.

"Ahhh," Aleyne hurriedly answered in slight alarm, "that's okay... It really is something, but at this moment I'm too comfortable to... be growled at. You may growl when I'm not comfortable if it makes you happy." Her argument made no sense to her own ears. It wasn't that she was particularly flustered, quite the contrary. She was more at ease around this half controlled beast of a person than she was around the majority of human kind. It was more that she was... Aleyne searched inside her mind, yet couldn't find the answer. Which aggravated her even more.

"I see. Let me know when you aren't comfortable," Weiss said, slightly confused. Her reasoning was spot-on, as always, he could see.

Aleyne nodded tightly, feeling his incredulousness dripping from his words and bleeding through into his icy stare. She contended herself over her book after that, figuring at least in that she wouldn't be brutally beaten by the purple haired man lounging on the couch opposite her.

Weiss looked back down into his own book, since silence had been levied. Not that he minded much. He was usually silent, unless something was irritating him, like she liked to, usually.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed as they studied, holed up in their own corners of the room. Aleyne glanced up periodically to find him still sitting there which then introduced a sort of complicating mess of feelings. Relief, annoyance, then irritation at herself for the first thought.
She shifted on the couch, the red velvet brushing against her arm and sending a tingling of feeling through her nervous system. Then she asked him the question she'd been mulling over for the past few minutes, "why do you think they stopped? The dragons I mean. They were winning, weren't they? Or at least there seems to be differing opinions on the subject. If they were though, why stop? We're so insignificant in comparison, what would they gain from halting the conflict to honor a mere treaty?"

"Dragon's don't reproduce as quickly as humans do," Weiss explained. "Therefore, individual dragons are more important to them than any one human is to us. We were killing too many of them, even if they were eradicating us," he finished, shrugging and looking up to meet her gaze.

"I suppose that seems pretty logical," Aleyne mused aloud. Though there were many theories on why the dragons had pulled off the attack, this explanation provided the basic thought process that struck a cord of probable truth. Possibly his bond had told him, though from what she knew most of the dragons they were attached to had not been prominent in the ending of the war, and didn't know much about it themselves. "Do you think it will start again?" she asked finally, the weight of the hidden question like an overbearing cloud. It's suppressing implications hard to focus on.

"Perhaps," he murmured, not really certain. There were many things keeping that from happening, and many things pushing for it to happen. It depended all on whichever side won.

"If it did start again, we wouldn't make it." Aleyne said simply, her voice slightly softer in tone than usual. "Even with the added knowledge of the creatures, they are vastly more capable in combat. Just one is enough to blow out an entire settlement." She turned a page of the book in her lap, "those men from the market, they must not see that."

"No we wouldn't," he said, nodding. He didn't believe how they thought at all, either. "Most people nowadays are idiots." he rationalized, shrugging. He didn't have any other explanation for their anger.

Aleyne glanced over at him, wondering at the tone of his voice. "Yeah, you're right," she replied evenly.
It then came back to her in a flood of feeling. Her hands, steady against the shaft which buried itself into his chest. The warm feel of his blood flooding over her hands.
It was almost unearthly, to regard the person whom you were personally detaching from this world, and watch as the life drained from their eyes. Had it been shock which kept her from registering this?
Aleyne's closed her eyes, the answer was clear.
The war had required a sacrifice of humanity, a small portion from what some would deem the soul. Just as killing no longer gave her any hesitation, perhaps the man from the market had given up his ability to reason; perhaps the only way he could function was by cutting away everything but his fury.
Aleyne's heart grew cold, the understanding filling her like a cap exploding from a lapping furnace of boiling daggers. She was sickened by her own callousness. What sort of a world had turned them into such creatures? Ones given the ability to cut away the human parts of themselves that caused weakness. What would be left of them in the end?
Almighty. His eyes. Staring into them had been like staring into his very essence. Yet, she had paid no heed. How many times had she done that? Killed without thought. Was this a reflection of who she was?

Weiss looked back, his cold and unusual shell of a personality staring back at her. He was the essence of soul-sacrifice, nearly all of him gone but his rage and violence. The perfect soldier. He had sacrificed much after all of the horrors he'd seen.